A terminally-ill British woman who wants to die with her husband's help
lost the final round of her legal fight in a landmark decision at the European
Court of Human Rights on Monday.

Diane Pretty, 43, who is paralysed and unable to kill herself, took
her "right-to-die" case to Europe after her husband Brian was denied immunity
from prosecution by Britain's highest court.

Seven judges at the European Court in Strasbourg, eastern France, ruled
that Britain had violated none of her rights.

The mother of two, from Luton, Bedfordshire, has motor neurone disease,
an incurable degenerative condition that will lead to her death from respiratory
failure within months.

Her lawyers argued that British courts' refusal to free Brian Pretty
from the fear of legal action infringed the couple's rights under five
articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Helping in a suicide is illegal under English law and carries a maximum
14-year jail term.

The case fuelled the long-running debate over euthanasia and divided
legal and moral opinion.

Liberty, the human rights group which backed the Prettys, called on
the British government to reform the laws governing assisted suicide.

"We are disappointed that Diane has lost her case," Liberty spokesman
Roger Bingham told Reuters. "We believe that the government has the opportunity
to remedy the defects in the current law which placed Diane and others
in such a terrible trap."

"Since Diane's case started, thousands of terminally-ill people have
had a bad death," the group's director Deborah Annetts said in a statement.
"We call on Parliament to...put in place a proper law which gives people
like Diane the right to choose a medically assisted death while ensuring
that the vulnerable are protected."

The Medical Ethics Alliance, a British pro-life group, opposed the Prettys,
saying a "right-to-die" ruling would have put many disabled and elderly
people at risk.

In a separate case, Britain's High Court ruled in March that a paralysed
woman who could only breathe through a ventilator was entitled to end her
own life by refusing treatment. The 43-year-old social worker, known in
court as "Miss B," said the hospital was acting unlawfully in continuing
artificial ventilation without her consent.

Euthanasia became legal on April 1 in the Netherlands, the first country
to permit mercy killing.